Applied Microeconomics
Applied Microeconomics
The Applied Microeconomics research group unites researchers working on a broad array of topics within such areas as labour economics, economics of education, health economics, family economics, urban economics, environmental economics, and the economics of science and innovation. The group operates in close collaboration with the CAGE Research Centre.
The group participates in the CAGE seminar on Applied Economics, which runs weekly on Tuesdays at 2:15pm. Students and faculty members of the group present their ongoing work in two brown bag seminars, held weekly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 1pm. Students, in collaboration with faculty members, also organise a bi-weekly reading group in applied econometrics on Thursdays at 1pm. The group organises numerous events throughout the year, including the Research Away Day and several thematic workshops.
Our activities
Work in Progress seminars
Tuesdays and Wednesdays 1-2pm
Students and faculty members of the group present their work in progress in two brown bag seminars. See below for a detailed scheduled of speakers.
Applied Econometrics reading group
Thursdays (bi-weekly) 1-2pm
Organised by students in collaboration with faculty members. See the Events calendar below for further details
People
Academics
Academics associated with the Applied Microeconomics Group are:
Research Students
Events
Economic History Workshop - Ola Olasson (Gothenberg)
Workshop organiser: Yannick Dupraz
Title of paper: Environmental Circumscription and Early State Development: The Case of Ancient Egypt
Abstract: What explains the origins and development of the first states around five thousand years ago? In this research, we focus on the role of weather shocks for early state development in a single region; ancient Egypt. We outline a dynamic extension of Carneiro鈥檚 (1970) model of environmental circumscription and early state development where the effective level of a region鈥檚 circumscription varies with exogenous weather shocks that affect Nile floods in the core, as well as the fertility of the surrounding hinterland. Our key hypotheses is that political stability should be higher when floods are abundant and the hinterland is dry. In order to test our model鈥檚 predictions, we develop novel proxies for historical precipitation on the basis of recently discovered, high-resolution paleoclimate archives (speleothem). Our empirical analysis then investigates the relationship between the level of Nile floods and rainfall in the Egyptian hinterland on the one hand, and political outcomes such as ruler and dynastic tenure durations and the intensity of pyramid construction on the other, during 2685 - 750 BCE, i.e. the classical period in dynastic Egypt. Our results show that while both too high or too low Nile floods are associated with a greater degree of political instability, periods with a greater rainfall in the hinterland (and hence a lower degree of environmental circumscription) are associated with an immediate rise in military and pyramid construction activity but also with a delayed increase in political instability since the decline in effective circumscription provides the farming population with an outside option in the hinterland.